Food

Recipes with Anchovies

March 5, 2014

Whether they're the star of a dish or the unexpected secret ingredient, anchovies make a flavorful, briny, savory addition to all kinds of recipes.

vitello-tonnato-italian-veal-with-tuna-caper-sauce — In this classic dish, cold sliced veal is served under a blanket of creamy tuna mayonnaise.Ingalls Photography

Herbed Tomato Tart — Made with ripe cherry tomatoes and fragrant herbs, this tart is both delicious and beautiful.Todd Coleman

Pan Bagnat (Provençal Tuna Sandwich) — Packed with tomatoes, local bell peppers, black niçoise olives, anchovies and tuna, pan bagnat is basically a salade niçoise on crusty bread.Todd Coleman

Fried Anchovy-Stuffed Zucchini Blossoms — Light and airy, with a subtle squash flavor, zucchini blossoms are wonderful to cook; they make a flavorful, delicate appetizer when stuffed with salty anchovies and fried. Since the blossoms have a short shelf life, use them within a day of purchasing. Be sure to remove the stamens before working with them. This recipe first appeared in our June/July issue along with Sophie Brickman's story "Feast for Life."Landon Nordeman

Grilled Octopus with Chickpeas, Tomatoes and Anchovy Vinaigrette — Tacolicious owner Sara Deseran first discovered this smoky salad, from Neil Fraser of LA's Redbird, while cooking at the annual Sabores San Miguel festival in Mexico. The trick to getting tender, flavorful octopus is boiling it first, then marinating and grilling it.Farideh Sadeghin

The Italian anchovy sauce colatura di alici lends a deep umami flavor to this pasta dish from chef Justin Smillie of Manhattan's Il Buco Alimentari & Vineria. This recipe first appeared in the iPad edition of our Jan/Feb 2013 issue along the article Il Buco Alimentari & Vineria.Todd Coleman

Michael Richard's Deviled Eggs — Deviled eggs get an update with white anchovies and masago arare, Japanese rice cracker beads that mimic caviar.Todd Coleman

Spaghetti with Anchovy Garlic Sauce — Anchovy paste adds umami punch to an elemental garlic-and-butter sauce that's perfect tossed with a thin pasta like spaghetti.Helen Rosner

A tangy paste of green olives, anchovies, and capers is the perfect topping for mild and tender filet of sole.Todd Coleman

Use salt-packed anchovy fillets to make this antipasto from Luciano De Giacomi's Nonna Genia's Classic Langhe Cookbook (Astilibri, 1982).Penny De Los Santos

Caesar Salad — This classic salad is easy to make from scratch at home.Todd Coleman

Salade Niçoise — A French bistro staple, this provençal salad combines tuna, olives, cucumber, green beans, anchovies, and other spring vegetables for a filling and protein-rich meal.Todd Coleman

Spinach Salad with Oregano Vinaigrette — Be sure to use large, mature spinach with thick stems, not bagged baby spinach, to make this salad. The leaves' hardy texture and earthy flavor will stand up to the pungent vinaigrette.Caitlin Santomauro

Olive Oil-Braised Vegetables — This flavorful mix of broccoli, cauliflower, zucchini, and potatoes is braised in olive oil that's been infused with rosemary, chile flakes, lemon, and anchovies.Todd Coleman

The crisp-fried veal topped with luscious egg, salty anchovies, and capers is a brilliant study in contrasting flavors and textures.Todd Coleman

Braised Cavolo Nero — The leaves of cavolo nero (also known as Tuscan kale, Lacinato kale, or Dinosaur kale) cook slowly into a luscious heap when braised whole.Laura Sant

Tossed with a garlicky anchovy dressing, this vegetable dish is a great foil for rich pastas and roasted meats.Todd Coleman

Stuffed Cherry Peppers (Peperoni con Acciughe) — Capers, tuna, and anchovies balance the heat in these small, stuffed cherry peppers.Todd Coleman

Onion and Anchovy Tarts (Pissaladières) — Based on the classic French caramelized-onion tart with olives and anchovies, these little two-bite hors d'oeuvres pack a flavorful punch.Todd Coleman

Caramelized Onion Tart (Pissaladière) — This southern French tart takes its name from pissala, a pungent anchovy paste that gives the flatbread its distinctive flavor.Landon Nordeman

This Italian classic, whose Italian name means warm bath, provides the perfect counterpoint to raw vegetables. This recipe is based on one in Essentials of Classic Italian Cuisine (Knopf, 1992) by Marcella Hazan.Andre Baranowski

Corkscrew Pasta with Sicilian Pesto (Busiate alla Siciliana) — This flavorful pesto from Sicily is traditionally served with homemade busiate, a spiral-shaped pasta; you can substitute dried fusilli in a pinch.Todd Coleman

Swordfish Puttanesca — Italy's puttanesca sauce, briny with anchovies, olives, and capers, pairs well with swordfish or any other meaty fish.Todd Coleman

Capers and anchovies lend briny depth to this parsley sauce, which is fantastic tossed with grilled or boiled vegetables, and with rich fish like mackerel.Todd Coleman

Based on a dish served at Birrificio Italiano, a brewery and restaurant in Italy's Lombardy region, this puttanesca-style pasta sauce is enriched with Bibock, the brewery's bock-style beer.Marco Beltramo

Salsa verde, a Mediterranean condiment flavored with anchovies, capers, and herbs, partners nicely with seared, medium-rare lamb chops.Andre Baranowski

At Savron, a restaurant in Trieste, Italy, they roast cuts of pork and veal and then pave a serving plate with cold thin slices of each and slathers on these two flavorful sauces. At home, use the sauces to dress up leftover meats—pork or veal or a combination of the two. The color of the anchovy sauce will vary according to the variety of anchovies used; plump, rosy ones, which are usually packed in glass jars, tend to yield a thicker, more richly hued sauce.Sandro Michahelles

This recipe for mussels steamed with wine is based on one from Resto, a Belgian restaurant in New York City.Andre Baranowski

The versatile sauce used here comes from Rogers Gray Italian Country Cook Book (Random House, 1995), by Ruth Rogers and Rose Gray, chef-owners of London's acclaimed (and very Italian) River Cafe. It can be used not only as a dip for radicchio and other vegetables, but also spooned over grilled or roasted fish or lamb. Rogers and Gray recommend green Tuscan olive oil.Christopher Hirsheimer

Sauce vierge (literally, virgin sauce, a reference to its uncooked character) belongs to a family of fresh French Mediterranean sauces that differ greatly from the rich, stock-based sauces commonly associated with classical French cooking. Also called green sauce, sauce aux herbes, and sauce verte, it is usually a piquant mixture of olive oil, herbs, mustard, capers, olives, and other aromatics. In this version, chiles add a spicy, new-world dimension. Besides accompanying steak, this sauce goes well with grilled or sauteed pork chops or tuna.James Oseland

Food fried a la romana (in egg batter)—squid is often cooked this way in Spain—has a softer, moister crust than that fried in eggless batter.Galilea Nin

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